The present invention relates to door locking equipment and more particularly to a door locking mechanism included between first and second parallel door frames in which the door is situated, a cross bar brace which pivots and rotates from a mounting point located on the interior surface of the first door frame, a lock mechanism including a pivoting bar, for example, steel or hard plastic having a holding mechanism which rotates and slides into a U-shaped sleeve entrapping the steel bar in a first length-wise cross position which when unlocked allows the steel bar to rotate so the door, situated between first and second parallel door frames, can be opened from the outside.
In an alternative embodiment of the invention, a steel or hard plastic bar is situated completely across the interior width of a door. A Z-shaped mechanism is located between the two ends of the bar and is axially connected to a locking mechanism located on the exterior surface of the door. In the locked position, as the key in the locking mechanism is rotated, the Z-shaped mechanism causes the bar to extend in length and the two ends of the bar to be further apart. When so extended, the two bar ends extend into two receptacles, respectively, located in two parallel door frames in which the door is situated.
It is often easy for thieves and robbers to break through a conventional door lock mechanism because the bolt of the door lock extends only an inch or so into a frame portion of the door. It is desirable, therefore, to have a locking system which includes a cross bar which is mounted across the width of the door and is attached to both sides of the frame of the door. Although the distance between said mounting point and said locking brace equates essentially with the width of the door, and despite such cross bars being desirable and difficult to defeat, it has been considered very nearly impossible to have such a cross bar in use across the interior surface of the door, and especially when the home resident is not at home. It would be desirable, therefore, to have a cross bar system that includes a mechanism which allows the cross bar to be lifted from the bracket holding the cross bar via a lock mechanism so that the user can turn the key from outside the door, gain entry and remove the cross bar simultaneously.
It is thus an object of the invention to provide a new security lock that includes a cross bar brace which pivots and rotates from a mounting point on the interior side of a first door frame, a locking brace provided on the interior side of the door and a locking mechanism including a pivoting bar holding mechanism which rotates and slides into a U-shaped sleeve entrapping the steel bar in a length wise cross position in a first position and when unlocked pushes the steel bar upward to a position where it is free to rotate along or about an axis parallel to the rotation of the door so that the door can be opened from the exterior side of the door. The distance between the mounting point and the locking brace being the location brace being essentially slightly wider than the door.
In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, a steel rod, or a different rod fabricated from a hard material, for example from nylon, has a length which when extended in accordance with the invention is longer than the width of the door and is intended to extend between a pair of receptacle holes fabricated into the two parallel door frames in which the door is to be situated. In this embodiment, a mechanism is located between the two ends of the rod and is caused to be rotated by the rotation of a key used in a locking mechanism in the exterior surface of the door. The rotating mechanism located between the two ends of the steel bar is preferably Z-shaped when the arm is in the open position and takes on a different shape, for example, being merely a connection member bearing an angle of approximately 45 degrees between the two interior ends of the steel bar in the closed position. The entire steel arm and the rotatable center member are hidden from view when viewing the inside surface of the door and also hidden from view from the exterior surface of the door other than for the mechanism within which the key is turned. In the operation of this embodiment, the door will always be locked from the outside. Whenever it is decided to unlock the door from the outside, the key is inserted into the locking mechanism on the exterior surface of the door and is rotated to cause the steel bar to be shortened and to pull out of the two receptacle holes in the door frames, respectively, thus allowing the door to be unlocked and the resident to open the door and thereby gain entry into the house. Parallel the two embodiments described above has some commonality in that neither door can be opened from the interior of the house and can only be locked or unlocked from the keying mechanism located on the exterior surface of the door.